Kiefer Sutherland, shown in July 2007, will return as agent Jack Bauer in a special 24 prequel in November. The show's season officially starts in January 2009. (Associated Press)

Production on the Emmy-winning TV action series 24, starring Canada's Kiefer Sutherland, will be shut down temporarily.

Executive producer Howard Gordon called for the unscheduled hiatus because he wasn't happy with upcoming scripts for the drama, which chronicles an entire day in the life of counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer in each season.

The Hollywood Reporter says filming will stop on Sept. 15 and will resume Oct. 19 to allow writers time to work on the scripts.

The show, now in its seventh season, will have completed production on episode 18.

The season doesn't start until January, so the stoppage shouldn't actually affect viewers.

Still on track is a special two-hour prequel due to air Nov. 23 titled 24: Redemption, which is supposed to set up the seventh season.

The season will feature Jon Voight — who won an Oscar for his role in the 1978 film Coming Home and was recently seen in Transformers and National Treasure: Book of Secrets — as the show's newest enemy.

The start of production for this season was already delayed a couple of times last summer while the plot line was being revised.

It was then halted after the eighth episode in early last December for almost five months because of the writers' strike, triggering a decision by Fox executives to delay the entire season until 2009.